SNACK HERE: StarbucksNOT THERE: Chick-fil-ARemember the so-called Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day last year? Fox News commentator Mike Huckabee sent thousands of people into jammed waiting lines and transformed the fast-food chicken chain into an antigay symbol. Don't want gays and lesbians to be able to get married? Eat more chicken. No other mainstream brand is more associated with opposition to marriage equality. But that isn't even what started the LGBT outrage with Chick-fil-A. The company had been donating money to antigay causes, including those that had backed reparative therapy, giving $2 million in 2010 alone via its Winshape Foundation. Now the company has backed off giving to most of the questionable groups.

Despite its tweaks in charitable giving, Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy once again made his views clear after the Supreme Court ruled this year against the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 in California. "Sad day for our nation," he had written on Twitter before deleting the note. "Founding fathers would be ashamed of our gen. to abandon wisdom of the ages re: cornerstone of strong societies." When you inevitably find yourself in the mall, which so many Chick-fil-A's call home, try shopping around the food court.

Or just stop at a Starbucks before your shopping trip. Because if Chick-fil-A is antigay, Starbucks is becoming its pro-LGBT foil. The National Organization for Marriage has been trying for months to get people to sign its "Dump Starbucks" petition over the company's vocal support for marriage equality. It even has this flier that lists all the reasons it disapproves of Starbucks, but you might want to check it out as a list of reasons to get one of those red holiday cups at Starbucks this season.

Proceed With Caution: HasbroIf you simply must stop at Toys 'R' Us (HRC rating: 75) this holiday season to stock up on goodies for the little ones in your life, Hasbro has a mixed history worth knowing about. For starters, the toy company that brought us Transformers, My Little Pony, and Play-Doh scored a dismal rating of 25 on HRC's Corporate Equality Index. Anything less than 60 is considered failing.

But Hasbro has sometimes been receptive when facing public pressure. Late last year a 13-year-old girl took the toy maker to task over what she said was gender-exclusive marketing of the company's famed Easy-Bake Oven. After more than 45,000 people, including celebrity chefs, backed McKenna Pope's Change.org petition demanding that Hasbro start featuring boys in its Easy-Bake marketing and produce the convection toy in gender-neutral colors, the company did announce plans to produce a black-and-silver Easy-Bake oven in addition to the pink-and-purple color schemes already on shelves. Back in 2009, Hasbro came under fire for excluding the option of same-sex marriage in its classic Game of Life — a feature that still doesn't appear in the game on shelves today. But in a modicum of progress, the online version of Life does allow players to marry a person of the same sex — which inevitably caused right-wing website WorldNetDaily to have a conniption about the destruction of "traditional family values" enshrined in Milton Bradley's first game, created in 1860.

Maybe none of that is reason enough to skip Hasbro. But its competitor Mattel earned an "A" rating of 85 from HRC this year. Mattel produces products for all ages and genders, including the iconic Barbie line, American Girl dolls, Hot Wheels cars, Fisher-Price toys, and all-ages games like Apples to Apples, Scrabble, Scene It? and Uno.

SHOP HERE: Online RetailersSkip the lines and shop in your pajamas on Cyber Monday, which has emerged as the online equivalent of Black Friday. But which of the “dot-com divas” have been most supportive of the LGBT community? Amazon.com, which now boasts shipping even on Sundays, is consistently at the head of the e-shopping pack. Its founder, Jeff Bezos, has pledged millions in support of marriage equality. Faith Driven Consumer, an antigay religious-based website that ranks companies on “Biblical world view,” specifically criticizes Amazon for being a “staunch supporter of the homosexual, bisexual and transgender political and social agenda in the workplace and beyond,” which is a positive attribute in the LGBT world view.

Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com, has written for The Advocate on several occasions, in order to voice his support for marriage equality and push for an all-inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

For holiday gifts, Fab.com is a must-click. Originally cofounded by out entrepreneurs Jason Goldberg and Bradford Shellhammer as a gay social network, the site has blossomed into one of the most successful online retailers. Replacements.com, a retailer of glassware, china, and silverware, was also founded by a gay man, Bob Page, who led a visible campaign for marriage equality despite hostile letters and emails from former customers.

And for shipping needs, UPS is a proven advocate of the LGBT community. Earning a rare 100 from HRC, the company even took a firm stand against the antigay policies of the Boy Scouts of America by instituting a policy that blocked donations to the BSA and other discriminatory organizations. With an impressive HRC score of 85 for its support of LGBT people, FedEx also ranks as a company worth endorsing.

Proceed With Caution: Kohl'sWe know you've been eyeing those Jennifer Lopez leggings and Bobby Flay cookware down at Kohl's, but it's not exactly the most LGBT-friendly department store at the mall (compared to JCPenney, Nordstrom, or Macy's). The company does have nondiscrimination policies covering its gay and lesbian workers, but not its transgender workers. According to the Human Rights Campaign, the company does not offer other benefits specifically for LGBT employees, there are no initiatives to recruit LGBT job candidates, nor does it require LGBT-focused diversity training. But on top of that, the organization behind the Faith-Driven Consumer Index absolutely loves Kohl's. That is largely because the company eliminated its corporate donations to Planned Parenthood in 2011, and the faith-driven group cites Kohl's low score (15 out of 100) on the HRC's index as the reason behind supporting the store. "Its relatively weak promotion of the homosexual and transgender political agenda indicates support for the natural and traditional family," say the creators of the index.

Proceed With Caution: TrumpDonald Trump has a lot of buildings and products with his name on them, including a line of power neckties. But the Trump brand is also synonymous with his ultraconservative politics, including his belief that President Obama's hiding something about his birth certificate and that same-sex couples shouldn't be allowed to marry. On that last point, though, Trump recently told MSNBC's Thomas Roberts that he's "evolving." His view was first noted in 2009 when he defended Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean and her opposition to same-sex marriage. Then Trump said not only should same-sex couples not be allowed to marry, but also they don't deserve equal benefits.

While Trump is one of the country's most prominent businessmen to oppose marriage equality, he's also often publicly embraced LGBT people who work for his ventures. George Takei lobbied him to change his mind on marriage while a guest on The Apprentice, for example. And Roberts, who is gay, was hired to host Trump's Miss Universe Pageant — which was located in antigay Russia. Trump has seemed to embrace transgender people as well, by revising the Miss Universe pageant's policy to include trans women as contestants. All of this is worth keeping in mind when selecting your next Vegas hotel room or neckwear or bottle of wine or golf course or chocolate or stemware or cologne.

SHOP HERE: Have the Gayest House on the BlockIf you’re shopping for home furnishings, there are plenty of LGBT-friendly choices. Williams-Sonoma, the gay-beloved parent company of equally gay-beloved stores West Elm and Pottery Barn, scored 80 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s most recent Corporate Equality Index, a few years after it took some criticism for not participating. Its antidiscrimination policy explicitly includes sexual orientation and gender identity. It needs to upgrade its transgender health coverage and add some cultural competency efforts, such as diversity training, to achieve a perfect score. But the current score’s high enough to recommend it. Crate & Barrel does even better, with a 90 score, and its Ultimate Wedding Contest has been open to same-sex couples.

If you want to go full-on LGBT-inclusive, though, there’s Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, the firm founded by the gay men of the same names. The company has a perfect 100 on the HRC index, and it has many other praiseworthy policies that aid LGBT folks and others. Its factory in North Carolina has an on-site, nonprofit day care center, the first in the residential furniture industry. It donated 5 percent of Thanksgiving weekend sales to relief efforts assisting typhoon survivors in the Philippines. And Gold is the founder of Faith in America, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about how religion-based bigotry is used to justify discrimination against LGBT people. Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams has its own stores across the nation, and its products are available at numerous other retail outlets; you can find a store near you via its website.

POTLUCK HERE: BertolliNOT THERE:BarillaIf you're like a lot of families, your holiday meal or party might include pasta. But if you're an LGBT family, Barilla still has no plans of including you in its advertising. Chairman Guido Barilla famously said this year that "I would never do [a commercial] with a homosexual couple, not for lack of respect but because we don't agree with them," according to a Reuters translation of an interview in Italian. "Ours is a classic family where the woman plays a fundamental role. … If [gays] don't like it, they can go eat another brand." He's since apologized a few times.

A lot of LGBT families have said there's nothing the company could say to repair its image, so it's launched a diversity panel charged with finding ways to prove the apology reflects a new inclusive culture. We'll see. But if you want to boil some pasta from a brand that includes you in its advertising, just try Bertolli. Immediately after Guido Barilla's comments, the company shared some same-sex pasta-loving couples in graphics via social media. And it's included same-sex couples in television ads for the Logo network in the past.

Proceed With Caution: Hobby LobbyHobby Lobby, a privately held retailer of arts and crafts items, is much in the news these days because its owners claim their religious freedom is being violated by the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employer-provided insurance policies cover contraception; the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Hobby Lobby’s case. It’s not entirely clear if the company’s social conservatism extends to LGBT issues, though.

On the one hand, it has donated to many not-so-friendly Christian fundamentalist institutions, such as Oral Roberts University and the Alliance Defending Freedom (a legal group formerly known as the Alliance Defense Fund). And Hobby Lobby does not participate in the Human Rights Campaign’s survey of companies on their LGBT-related policies, so there is no rating available. On the other, in 2012, in light of the Chick-fil-A controversy, the company issued a statement saying, “Hobby Lobby does not discriminate with regard to race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, sexual preference or any other basis protected by state or federal law.” OK, the language is a bit dated and allows some wiggle room, but it’s a start. If you're judging solely based on how your dollars impact LGBT equality, for now “proceed with caution” on Hobby Lobby.

SHOP HERE: Tech Gadgets GaloreIt's no surprise that the tech industry, unofficially headquartered in Northern California's Silicon Valley, less than an hour from the LGBT mecca that is San Francisco, tends to score well when it comes to corporate equality and LGBT-savvy policies. That's a good thing too, since consumer surveys demonstrate that LGBT consumers tend to be early adopters of new technology and want the latest, greatest, most high-tech gadgets available.

Whether you're shopping for a die-hard Apple enthusiast or someone with a strong PC preference, you're in the clear to gift guilt-free from Apple, Dell, Microsoft, or Google, all of which earned perfect 100 scores on HRC's most recent index.

Just be weary of an ACER product (which includes the nearly defunct brands of Packard Bell and Gateway), since that company earned the distinctive dishonor of being the lowest-rated tech company on this year's HRC index, with a score of just 35.

Win over your jaded teenage niece or nephew with the latest smartphone, complete with a plan from Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint, all of which earned perfect scores from HRC this year. When you're trekking out to find the trendiest tech toys, start at super-retailer Best Buy, since it also earned a perfect 100. For the tech-savvy bibliophile in your life, you can choose between the Nook from Barnes & Noble, which scored a perfect 100, or a Kindle from Amazon, which ran a gay-inclusive commercial for the product earlier this year.

Proceed With Caution: Salvation ArmyThe bell-ringers with their red kettles are a symbol nearly synonymous with the holidays, but since at least 2001, LGBT people have been calling for a boycott of the Salvation Army's fundraising drives. They point to the organization's refusal to provide benefits to partners of gay and lesbian employees as well as the group's evangelical Christian doctrine, which cites scripture forbidding "sexual intimacy between members of the same sex," according to the Human Rights Campaign.

But this year — just in time for the holidays — the Salvation Army announced that it has revised its nondiscrimination policies to explicitly include sexual orientation. Employees and volunteers with the Army are no longer allowed to deny service or employment to someone on the basis of sexual orientation, and the Army's director of communications told pro-LGBT group Truth Wins Out last week that "we serve everyone who comes to our doors without discrimination." The Army also removed two links to religious groups that advocate so-called ex-gay therapy, the scientifically discredited practice that aims to turn gay people straight through prayer and counseling.

While the Army's modest steps toward basic tolerance of LGBT people should be applauded — we've got to commend even incremental progress when we see it — the organization still has some history to overcome with lasting progress.

If you're still weary and looking for an alternative thrift store to shop or help out, we suggest Californians patronize Out of the Closet, a fabulous chain of thrift stores run by the global nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation that donates a substantial portion of its proceeds to HIV and AIDS research. According to the organization, 96 cents of every dollar earned goes directly to funding patient care, and the stores regularly host free HIV testing drives. Around the nation, secondhand stores that support HIV and AIDS groups include the Housing Works shops in New York City, the Brown Elephant in Chicago, Philly AIDS Thrift in Philadelphia, and the Lifelong Thrift Store in Seattle. You'll find options in several other cities as well.